The Villain of Time
by rynling
Summary: Ganondorf has captured a young pirate named Tetra, who has been revealed as the reincarnation of the princess Zelda. He keeps Tetra with him as bait to lure the hero until he can use the Triforce to turn back time. Gradually he finds that the girl is growing on him, and he begins to reconsider his determination to defy his fate and save the life of his lost love. Wind Waker AU
1. The Kidnapped Princess

When he touched the Triforce, time shattered, and the world shattered with it.

That first wish felt like lifetimes ago.

Ganondorf sat in one of the windows cut into the thick stone of the tower and watched the sun set over the sea. No wind touched the sultry waves, and he cooled himself with a folding fan he had acquired from a trading ship far to the south. In a world without candles, the last light of the day was precious, but he could not concentrate.

He had locked the princess inside a cell, and she had been screaming for hours. At first this comforted him; he would have been worried if she had suddenly fallen silent. Now her constant racket was simply annoying. Even a caged animal will eventually lose its will to fight, but the girl showed no signs of calming down. She would need to be fed, but he didn't trust her not to hurt the Bokoblins he had assigned to the task. He snapped his fan shut and stepped down from the windowsill. He would have to deal with her himself.

The tower's passageways had become dark, and he lit the wall torches as he passed. The magic was so ingrained that he almost didn't have to think about it. After so many years, invoking fire had become a meaningless act to calm his mind. One of the princesses had created ice when she was agitated, flipping the small crystals between her gloved fingers. It took him a moment to remember which princess that had been.

"Finally!" she screamed as he climbed down the stairs into the area where he had ordered the girl to be confined.

She watched him while he removed a chair from its position against the wall and placed it in front of her cell, her eyes growing wide as he lit the coals of the standing braziers with a snap of his fingers. He sat down, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited for her to continue her tirade, but she seemed to be at a loss for words now that he was finally in front of her.

"Aren't... aren't you going to tell me why you brought me here?" she finally asked.

Ganondorf shook his head. "It's not necessary. Your existence is an accident. When the hero arrives and the Triforce is reunited, I will rewind the clockwork of this cursed world, and it will be as if you had never been born. I need not waste my breath explaining myself to you."

The princess twisted her mouth into a mockery of a smile. "I get it now! You're going to destroy the world. And you plan on killing me too! Just own up to it."

Ganondorf closed his eyes and shrugged. From her perspective, what she had said was not wrong.

Something soft struck him in the face. He blinked and lifted one of the princess's gloves from where it had fallen at his collar. It was filthy, stained with the rust and grime of her cell. She had obviously done her best to escape, perhaps using the length of fabric as leverage.

He looked at her, and she glared back at him.

"Pay attention to me when I'm talking to you, you cocksucking asswipe!"

He started. Although any number of princesses had been angry with him before, none had ever used such a foul manner of address. He noticed for the first time that she had taken off her crown, tangling her hair in the process. Her dress hung strangely askew on her body, as if she had tried and failed to remove it.

"Guys like you have some sort of inferiority complex, right? You always need to feel like you're the boss. Is that why you kidnap girls? Because they're the only people who're afraid of you? Or do you have some sort of fetish? Anyone can tell you're a dirty old man just by looking at your stupid face!"

He sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Her attempts to provoke him were childish.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Too young for you, grandpa!"

"Obviously."

"Want me to put on a show?" She leered at him and wiggled her hips.

"That is enough!" He stood and took a few steps forward. His shadow fell across her face as he loomed over her. Gods help him, she actually did seem frightened.

"What I want is for you to sit quietly and behave until I figure out what to do with you!"

He took a moment to calm himself. "You can't stay in this cell," he said in a lower voice.

"You know what, I'm comfortable here," she muttered. "I think I'll stay right where I am. You don't have to figure out anything, isn't that nice?"

"If I leave you here, you will escape, and then I'll have to hunt you down again. I've had enough trouble for one day without having to stay up all night chasing you."

"I can see how an old man like you needs his beauty sleep."

He didn't answer her.

"Okay, I'm not sure I'm following," she began again. "You brought me here, but you still need to figure out what to do with me? Wasn't kidnapping me your plan?"

"It's not that simple. You are a single cog in a much larger machine."

"Um, yeah. I don't care. Do you have any food?"

"That's why I came. Until I have you transferred to different quarters, I'm going to ask you not to harm any of the people who work for me."

"The... people?"

"You will not stab them with your utensils or with any broken glass. They are under strict orders not to harm you, and while you are under my protection they are obligated not to fight you. Even if you do escape, you have nowhere to run. The ocean currents around this tower are murderous, and you would drown if you were to try to swim away."

"And..." Ganondorf paused, considered his words, and continued, "Do not throw your food. It is beneath your dignity."

The girl slammed her fists against the bars. "You can take your stupid dignity and shove it!"

She let loose a hail of abuse, and Ganondorf realized their conversation was over. He returned the chair to the wall and left the room as her diatribe followed him up the stairs. How could this foul-mouthed girl possibly be the right person? Had he made some sort of mistake?

If nothing else, he couldn't help but admire the strength of her resistance. He supposed he had once been like her, although he barely remembered it. Time had grown strange for him, with only a few memories rising like lighthouses from a chaotic and threatening sea.


	2. Castaways

She was coy and manipulative when it suited her purpose, yet she could be as sweet and warm as the sun in early summer. He remembered her laughing into his mouth before she kissed him, her pale blue eyes smiling. She was beautiful beyond compare, and still her appearance did not do justice to the depth of her wisdom or the quickness of her wit. Yet while her exact words had faded from his mind her beauty never left him – the blush that rose under her pale skin as she took his hands, the shine of her golden hair in candlelight, the whiteness of her thighs against his. And gods, how she sang, with a voice clearer and richer than the sky at dawn.

"Hey gramps, you gonna eat that?"

Ganondorf frowned at Tetra, who was already reaching for the bread in the middle of the table. She ignored him and took it anyway, shoving it into her mouth. She didn't even seem to chew it.

"Child, you eat like a..."

"A pig?"

"...a monkey," he said, wincing.

Tetra's mouth was smeared with grease. Her fingers were dirty, with grime wedged under her nails. Her eyes were a muddy indigo, and her short ears pointed upwards. Her sunbaked skin was nearly as dark as his own. She almost looked like a Gerudo, but the meaning of that word had shifted and changed like everything else in this world.

"Are you gonna complain about the way I eat? Then don't make me eat with you," she said, opening her mouth to show her half-masticated food.

"If I could trust you to eat like a civilized creature, I would gladly forgo the tiresome duty of having to watch you."

"You really expect me to eat around Bokoblins? They stink."

"A Bokoblin baked the bread you're devouring."

Bread was rare on the Great Sea. People ate mostly swine or waterfowl. Bokoblins did not eat pork and kept kargarocs as pets, so they traded for wheat and flour with the Goron merchants that plied the waves, bartering with what they were able to scavenge from below the surface of the water.

"Oh, really? I never would have guessed." Tetra took another bite. "I thought maybe you stole bread like you stole people's daughters, but this is actually pretty good."

"I will not be accused of theft by a pirate."

Tetra made a noncommittal noise. She used the crust of the bread to mop up the last bit of soup from the bowl in front of her.

"Pirates used to live in the Forsaken Fortress. Did you kill them like you're going to kill Link?"

 _I don't intend kill the hero. I never do. It's you he needs to be afraid of_ , Ganondorf thought before biting his tongue, reminding himself that this girl would have no idea what he meant.

"I've spared the boy's life twice, and I will not harm him if I can help it," he said instead.

"And the pirates that used to live in the Forsaken Fortress?"

"I'm not interested in talking about the pirates."

"Well I am!" Tetra slammed her fist against the table, rattling the heavy plates.

"They are of no concern to me." He gritted his teeth.

"They are 'of concern' to me! What did you do to them?"

"You foolish child," he said, rising to his feet. "You and your shipmates attacked them, stealing their food and water. You sank their ships and destroyed their means of survival. They fled this region just to be rid of you! The fortress was deserted when I found it."

Tetra's mouth hung open in shock, but still he continued. "I should have known you were involved. You have always disregarded the fate of those you cannot see with your own eyes."

"What? I don't – "

"No, you don't understand. You never have. First a princess, now a pirate. There is no difference," he sneered. "You take what you want, expect tribute, and drive away anyone who would challenge you."

Tetra stood too, her face turning red. "And how is that any different from what you're doing?" she spat at him.

"I came with the Bokoblins and the Moblins from the north and repaired the damage to the fortress. Despite its proximity to Windfall Island, they left the Hylian settlement alone, on my orders."

"They just follow you because they're afraid of you!"

"Better they fear me than use me, girl. Why do you think your men follow you? Out of the goodness of their hearts? Because you're such a capable leader?"

Ganondorf leaned toward her over the table, his eyes shining with malice. "You are yet young and unspoiled, and so you serve as a convenient mask for a hideous face. The gallant pirate queen, swinging from the rigging while blood washes over the deck. Gods forbid the princess should dirty her boots."

"I'M NOT A PRINCESS!"

Tetra swung back to strike him, but Ganondorf caught her wrist. He squeezed the joint, and she cried out in pain.

"No," he said, dropping her hand, "you're not."

She glared at him as he regarded her calmly. Her hair was oily and knotted. She had removed her gloves and looped them through her belt, which was covered with scratches. The skin under the golden ornament that hung at her collarbone was raw and chafed, and the hem of her skirt was dirty and frayed. Her eyes gleamed with tears.

She was a child. She was only a child. Ganondorf felt the weight of his age settle on his shoulders.

He turned away from her and left the room. Bokoblins clustered around him expectantly on the other side of the door.

 _See that the door to her room is left unlocked_ , he told them. _And find something more appropriate for her to wear. Don't try to help her change, if you value your lives._

He climbed the stairs to the room he had taken as his study. He could be there in an instant merely by willing it so, but he refrained, wanting to walk out his lingering anger. He paid for this decision with an uncomfortable tension in his legs and back. Every time he entered a new timeline, he did so as a young man in a young man's body, but years had passed since he came to this world.

When he had awoken here, he was alone on a small island, surrounded by more water than he had ever seen in all his many lives. There was no ocean in Hyrule.

His last attempt to defy fate had ended in utter disaster, with the princess's kingdom consumed by the flames of a civil war that left no corner of the land untouched. He knew he should never have let matters escalate to that point, but he would not relent while the princess still lived. His determination to save her from her own people had been so terrible that he hardly remembered what he had done or how many people he had killed on his way to the Triforce.

Under the bright sun, its rays glittering on the sea, his fury had evaporated, leaving behind only the stinging salt of grief.

His armor was ill-suited to the climate, so he discarded it on the shore and spent days floating in the ocean, watching the sun rise and set over the horizon. Crabs scuttled along the beach. Seabirds gathered on the sand in clusters and flew away cawing. His lips cracked as his beard grew crusty.

No ships came to the island, and the weather didn't change. The sea was as barren as the desert.

It hadn't taken him long, as a young man in a young man's body, to grow restless. He used his swords to hack down the trunks of palm trees, which he fashioned into a raft. Using his cape as a makeshift sail, Ganondorf set out into the ocean.

In his room in the upper reaches of the tower he pulled an old bottle of wine from a dusty shelf. As he poured it into a chipped glass, he wondered what island Tetra had come from, and if her travels might have mirrored his own.

Not that it mattered. The girl was an anomaly, a strange bubble that had risen to the surface of the flow of time. He needed only to keep her alive until the Triforce revealed itself.

Hidden in the scent of the dark burgundy wine were fresh young vines emerging from rich loam. Ganondorf drank and thought of the wind sweeping over the endless green plains of Hyrule.


	3. How to Handle a Weapon

Ganondorf had fallen in love with Zelda within moments of meeting her. Their union had been cast as a political marriage, but this was a mere label of convenience. He moved heaven and earth to be with her while she spun the delicate threads of diplomacy that tied them together. There was no precedent for a Hylian princess marrying the Gerudo prince of the wealthy lands to the west, but he brought with him the gold and jewels for which the desert was known, as well as the trade routes that could be opened to her kingdom with a nod of his head. Behind him were the swords of his mercenaries, and the books of his universities, and the granite and coal of his mountains. He offered them all to the princess on a bended knee. This was a nothing more than a formality, as she had already accepted him in secret meetings of dew and starlight.

After they were married he learned how xenophobic the people of Hyrule truly were. He came to understand the subtle social dramas they used to demarcate outsiders, and how they traced their origin back to the very gods. He raged at them, but his queen calmed him with the touch of her cool words. She reasoned that acceptance would not come until the coronation of their children, and he had responded by suggesting that they must first start by making children. Their days were battles, but their nights were long and sweet.

In sunlight they were bound to their duties as monarchs, but by moonlight they were free.

When the poison found its way to them, Zelda passed away, weakened by her pregnancy. Ganondorf they could not kill, and so it was he who was blamed for the queen's death. He stood accused of sedition and bad faith even as his tears burned searing paths down his face. In the war that followed, all he could remember of his time in her castle was how her delicate fingers had rested on his as she took her final breath.

Ganondorf frowned as Tetra's raucous battle cry echoed off the stones, followed by the sonorous tone of wood meeting wood. A crowd of Bokoblins cheered. He had told them to leave her be, but his command had obviously been ignored. A week had passed since he brought the girl to the Tower of the Gods, and already his makeshift tribe was more inclined to listen to her than to him. This had not been the first timeline in which she had usurped his authority. If the gods were merciful, it would not be the last.

He entered a large open room at the center of the structure to find Tetra and a Moblin circling each other. The spear in the girl's hands dwarfed her, and she handled it poorly. The Moblin skipped on her hooves and snorted, taunting Tetra, who responded by swinging her spear like a sword. The Moblin parried it with her own, the poles thwacking together near the blades. She was obviously attempting to disrupt Tetra's balance by aiming high, and Tetra stumbled before quickly recovering.

 _Kick her in the shins, pirate girl_ , one of the Bokoblins shouted. The others laughed and contributed their own advice.

 _Swing low and make her jump!_

 _Stick the tassel in her face!_

 _Get behind her and poke her in the butt!_

At this last suggestion, Tetra grinned. She had probably only understood the word "butt."

 _Don't even think about it, honey_ , the Moblin said, wagging her finger. She stepped back and spun her spear over her head before swiftly bringing it down and pointing it at Tetra in a ridiculous pose.

Ganondorf noticed an irregularity in the paving stones immediately in front of her outstretched hoof. If she stepped forward, she would trip. Her spear would come down on Tetra, who didn't seem prepared to dodge it.

 _Enough!_ He raised his voice, and the jeering Bokoblins fell silent. He surveyed them before continuing. _You all have jobs to do. I will attend to the princess myself._

Tetra glared at him as the crowd dispersed. He scowled back at her. She slammed her spear onto the floor.

"What is it with you?" she hissed at him.

"I turn my back for a few hours and you're already trying to get yourself killed!"

"I know how to handle a weapon!"

The stubborn look on her face filled him with rage. It wasn't her petulance that angered him, but her conviction. In the blink of an eye he crossed the room, picked up the spear she had thrown, and swept it against her legs, knocking her down. With a flick of his wrist he pointed the blade at her, holding it against her throat as she lay on the ground. She looked at the spear, looked at him, and then looked away.

"You have no business handling a weapon you don't know how to use."

He withdrew the spear and set it on a nearby table as she got to her feet. Her eyes flicked to the dagger concealed in her sash, and he sighed inwardly. He began to turn away to give her an opening, and she took it. He caught her wrist as she lunged at him and twisted her arm, forcing her to drop the knife. He let her go, and she crouched on the floor beside her fallen blade as she massaged her hand.

Still she bared her teeth at him, her eyes narrowed to slits. He regarded her for a moment and felt a smile creeping onto his lips. Did she still mean to attack him?

"There may be hope for you yet, young pirate."

"Get bent."

"What you lack is a weapon more suited to your immediate talents."

"Go fuck yourself."

"Have you ever held a bow?"

"Only cowards fight with pea shooters."

"I'm not talking about a pistol, you foolish child. A bow can strike with greater force and better accuracy in the hands of a skilled archer."

"If bows are so great, why does the stupid 'hero' get a sword?"

Ganondorf looked on as Tetra attempted to sheath her dagger with her uninjured hand. She had asked a valid question. Why _did_ the stupid hero get a sword?

"The hero possesses the Triforce of Courage, just as you possess the Triforce of Wisdom. He has been granted the ability to imbue the people and objects around him with a potential that they would not otherwise possess. His magic is not internal, but gathered from external forces he has drawn to his cause. If you or I tried to wield the sword, it would only be a stick of metal, but to him it is an extension of his will, a strength of purpose forged in the trials the gods have laid out for him."

"Then what good is the Triforce of Wisdom? I don't have any special powers."

He peered down at her.

"Do you desire special powers?"

Tetra scowled. "I have to get something from this, right? There's got to be something good about my Triforce too. What's in it for me? It should be me out on the ocean, not that dumb kid. What makes me so special that I have to sit here and die of boredom in the company of some gross old man?"

"The endowments of your Triforce would have manifested as you grew older, but I tired of waiting and sought you out before you began to realize who you are. You are still too young to understand what it is you possess."

"I'm not that young! Stop treating me like a kid."

"If you are not a child, then you will stop playing with childish toys and learn to use a real weapon. I will begin training you tomorrow. Do try not to harm yourself in the meantime."

Ganondorf left Tetra alone to nurse her wrist and her pride. He questioned his decision to teach her archery, but he justified it with the rationalization that it might take weeks until the hero arrived, and it was in his best interests to keep the girl busy. The boy always needed time, but he had a feeling Tetra would be a quick study.


	4. A Strange and Unknown Creature

Ganondorf had once ridden across the desert, and now he sailed across the sea. He set a course toward the rising sun. Other islands emerged above the horizon, but they were uninhabited save for wild pigs and cuccos. As he continued east, he began to encounter signs of human life – low stone walls, rotten foundations, and the remains of what may have once been gardens. Farther east he encountered an island with a boathouse that had long since been abandoned. A quick inspection turned up a sealed urn of resin, which he used to repair a small skiff that had been kept in dry storage. Most of the canvas he found had already succumbed to the elements, but he was still able to salvage enough fabric to sew a sail.

The sun rose and set, and weeks passed.

He had learned to call to the wind as a young child, and it was a skill he had never forgotten. With the breeze at his back, the small boat skipped over the waves. He came across any number of islands, but when he finally encountered people they were traders aboard a light sailing yacht. They hailed him, and he boarded their craft gratefully, but he was perplexed to find that he could not understand their words. They seemed just as confounded by his inability to communicate, so they gave him a sea chart and directed him to a small island village. After another week on the ocean he arrived at his destination, where he set about learning the language as slowly and meticulously as he had once learned to call the wind.

The moon shifted through its phases, and months passed.

From their brown eyes and rounded ears, he had assumed these people to be foreigners, but he soon came to realize that their speech was a degraded form of Hylian. And yet, when he asked them about Hyrule, they claimed to have never heard of it. The Triforce? Blank stares. When he dared to ask about Princess Zelda, he was met with laughter. Imagine a princess, in this day and age. It was like something out of a story. There were no princesses on the Great Sea.

Ganondorf tapped his fan against Tetra's string elbow, which jutted out awkwardly behind her.

"Bring your arm up. Parallel to your shoulder. Don't be lazy."

Her arm trembled as she held the stance.

"Do you have your sight window?"

She grunted.

"Then release."

Tetra opened her fingers, and her arrow flew forward for about a yard before sinking and driving itself into the stone floor.

Tetra cursed, and Ganondorf nodded.

"Why did that happen?" he asked her.

"Like I know."

He nudged her left shoulder up with the tip of his fan.

"Your bow arm needs to be at a ninety degree angle to your body. Support it with your back." He touched the fan to the area under her shoulder blade. "The strength will come from here."

"Fine, I get it. But..."

"What."

"What's a 'ninety degree angle'?"

"Just keep your arm straight. Now return your arrow, and do it again."

"I don't like this bow."

"I don't care."

"Why can't I use the other one?"

"That was a child's bow. You couldn't harm a chu with that thing. Return your arrow, and do it again."

Tetra rolled her eyes and hummed four notes. Her arrow popped into her hand. She shifted her shoulders and returned to a firing stance. This time her footwork was sloppy.

Ganondorf had quickly realized that the girl was not a natural archer. This had come as a surprise. He couldn't help but think of the woman she might have been in another timeline, and he wondered how long those princesses must have practiced in order to seem so graceful with their bows.

Tetra could not shoot to save her life, but magic had come to her easily. She hadn't been shocked to learn that such power existed, or that she was capable of wielding it.

"I mean, I see you use magic all the time," she had said. "If you can do it, how hard can it be?"

It was a juvenile taunt, but he snapped back at her before he could catch himself.

"Then all the more stupid you'll seem when you find it's not as easy as it looks."

"I'm the one who got the Triforce of Wisdom, right? So I should be smarter than you."

"That has nothing to do with the Triforce," he had muttered.

And yet he had still been impressed at how rapidly she had mastered the most fundamental training exercise, levitating a one rupee coin. This meant the girl wasn't dumb, only stubborn. Within days she could return a fired arrow to her hand, which had speeded the pace of her training considerably. Not that it was going anywhere. He supposed he should feel relief; there would be one less set of Golden Arrows he'd have to dig out of his flesh.

Tetra fired. Her shot went wide, veering to the left.

"Your feet."

She looked down.

"What's the matter with my feet?"

"Your right foot is misaligned with your hip. Push it back a bit. You need a counterbalance against the force of the draw. You'll lose accuracy otherwise."

"Can't you just say 'move your foot'? Why does everything have to be a speech with you?"

Ganondorf glared at her levelly. Later he might ruminate over why she felt the need to counter everything he said, but at the moment she was trying his patience.

Perhaps sensing this, Tetra lowered her bow.

"Look, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but what am I even supposed to shoot at, anyway? You had to get Izark to make these targets, because, you know, there's nothing else here."

"Izark" was not the Bokoblin's name, but it was close enough. The girl was picking up their language in odd bits and pieces.

"This is a large tower. I'm sure you can find things to shoot."

"But you told me not to shoot at kargarocs."

Ganondorf knew she was continuing the conversation to avoid practice, but he had grown bored with it himself. He tucked his fan into his sleeve, but he wasn't done with her yet.

"Have you given any thought as to why that might be?"

"The Bokoblins keep them as pets. They carry in our supplies, I think. I've seen them doing it."

That was not the answer he was looking for, but she was a child, with a child's selfishness and simple practicality. As long as she understood that she was not to shoot at the birds, there was no need for her to harbor any respect or compassion. Not that she'd be able to hit them if she tried.

"Correct. Now clean this up."

"Why? It's not like anyone else is going to come up here."

"Leave it if you wish. Let the uncured canvas warp in the salt air, and let the paint run if it rains overnight. It doesn't matter to me."

Ganondorf turned and began to leave. He had better things to do than humor her petty tantrums.

"Hey."

He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder.

"What happened to that big bird? The helmaroc?"

"I no longer had a need for it to scout for Hylian girls, so I set it free."

"You're..."

Tetra paused and then continued, her voice full of curiosity. "You're lying."

Ganondorf's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"I don't know. I just do. That was a lie."

"You're right. It displeased me, so I sent it away in anger."

"Why?"

"Why do you think, you foolish child?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

He felt a wave of anger surge within him, but he let it break before he answered.

"You aren't. What interests me is what you think."

"I think... That it actually wasn't that bad? For a giant bird? I probably could have talked to it, and used it to escape."

She was not wrong. The helmaroc had enjoyed the affection of the other girls it carried to him, allowing them to feed it morsels of bread and run their small hands over its plumage. It would most certainly have allowed itself to be charmed by Tetra, and before he knew it she'd have been flying around on its back.

"It is exactly so."

"You're lying." Her words were stronger this time, surer.

He shook his head and put his back to her. "Sometimes your Triforce will give you insights, but it will never tell you what they mean. I have never envied your gift."

The helmaroc had been killed in the dragon's fire when the boy had attacked his island fortress. This was no one's fault but his own.

As he climbed to his study, he wondered if the girl would figure out the truth. If she did, would she be brash enough to inform him? Did she already suspect? Had she meant to taunt him? He had loved the bird, in his slow and careful way. He was pained by its loss, and he missed the old princesses, who would have allowed him to preserve his dignity by keeping their silence. Zelda had always been a mystery to him, but Tetra was an entirely strange and unknown creature.


	5. Learning to Swim

After Ganondorf touched the Triforce, wishing with all his heart to turn back time, he found himself standing in his palace. His hands were washed of the blood he had spilled, and he could see from the eye that had been blinded. Instead of armor he wore soft linen robes. He touched his forehead and found that the topaz stone on his crown had not been chipped.

Ignoring the consternation of his council and court, he prepared to depart for Hyrule immediately. He rode tirelessly for days, leaving his train of soldiers and attendants behind. He refused to be halted at the gate of the castle, caring as little for protocol as he did for the Hylian courtiers who attempted to waylay him. The princess intercepted him as he made his way to the throne room. Her face was furious, but he could not contain himself and embraced her.

Zelda had pushed him away, horrified. She had no knowledge of him save for his name and title. After a moment of icy shock, he felt himself fill with fire. If her memories were the price he had to pay the gods in exchange for her life, then he would accept their challenge, and he would allow himself to fall in love with her again from the beginning.

His second courtship was not that of a young man eager to wed and bed her. He could afford to take his time, laying out the foundations of a strong partnership while drawing out his delight in her company.

Ganondorf once again offered her his lands and his wealth, framing the arrangement as a marriage between two kingdoms that had maintained tense relations for far too long. He charmed the princess's advisors and senate by knowing the right things to say at the right times, almost as if by magic. He was sorely tempted to use his ill-gotten knowledge to charm her as well, but everything she did was so new and fresh that his past fell away from him like a soiled cloak. The affection that blossomed between them had a sweetness he had not experienced when he first knew her, and when she finally kissed him he thought that he would never live to see a more glorious triumph.

The height of his joy at their wedding was matched only by the depth of his fury when, despite his best laid plans, she once again fell victim to the intrigue of her court.

But that was worlds ago, and now his wife and his queen, the woman who held the keys to his heart, was nothing more than a snot-nosed water rat whose stubbornness was driving him to distraction.

"What sort of pirate doesn't know how to swim?" Ganondorf asked as he stood behind Tetra on a stone platform overlooking the flooded bottom floor of the ocean tower.

"I can swim just fine," she scowled at him.

"Then jump in."

"Why don't you jump in?"

"I wasn't the one who almost drowned on a set of stairs."

"It was just, you know, the tide came in and surprised me."

Ganondorf raised a corner of his mouth in a grin. "I'm sure it did."

 _Jump in!_

 _Jump in, tiny Hylian!_

 _Come on in, Tetra!_

A boisterous crowd of Bokoblins sat along the stone railing circling the walls. Several were already bobbing in the waves, waiting to catch Tetra. The flow of the tides came and went through the lower regions of the tower, water sloshing and gurgling up and down its corridors. The day before, Ganondorf had been suddenly mobbed by a group of panicked Bokoblins shouting to him that Tetra had been caught by the rising tide and dragged underwater.

Ganondorf had transported himself to the base of the tower and, shedding his robe as he ran, dived into the murky brine. He found the girl immediately and willed them back to his private chamber, where he forced air into her lungs until she coughed out mouthfuls of seawater. He put her to bed and lit a fire, too relieved that she had survived to chastise her.

Instead he unleashed his rage onto the Bokoblins who had tempted her into the water. They had been sent from the tower and would never return. If he could have extracted the girl's Triforce from her shivering body and sent her with them, he would have. If he lost her, all his work would have been for nothing. He could not wait for her to be reborn again.

Only later did anxiety concerning the girl's welfare strike him like a gust of freezing wind.

Regardless, he needed her to survive until the hero arrived, and so she would need to learn to swim.

"You spent your entire life on a boat, girl."

"The point of a boat is that you don't have to swim."

"And if you get tossed overboard in a sudden storm?"

"Once Link defeats you there won't be any freak storms."

"That scenario is highly unlikely. Now in you go." He placed the palm of his hand on her back and pushed.

Tetra fell into the waves with a shriek. She flailed her arms, splashing water into her face. Two Bokoblins paddled over to her. She kicked one of them with such force that he went flying back, shouting profanity at her all the while. Tetra slapped the other in the face, shocking herself into a stuttered apology while the disgruntled Bokoblin kept her afloat. Ganondorf bit back laughter.

"Hold your arms still," he told her. "Kick your legs."

She wouldn't look at him, but she did as he said. The Bokoblins, who all swam like sharks, circled around her and caught her arms, helping her stay upright. She traded insults with them in their guttural language, fearless once again. Their words echoed along the walls, drowning out the soft lapping of the waves.

The day was muggy and overcast. Ganondorf withdrew his fan from his sleeve and snapped it open. It would probably rain that evening.

"First you'll learn to tread water. Try not to swallow any this time."

The Bokoblins released her, and Tetra lost her balance. She overcompensated by wheeling her arms, sending herself backwards. She then kicked her feet, jerking forwards.

"You should attempt to minimize your movements," Ganondorf told her.

She spun around in the water. "You should attempt to minimize your vocabulary. Just let me do this, old man."

Ganondorf nodded, allowing her to flounder as he lowered himself and sat cross-legged on the ledge overlooking the water. The Bokoblins were giving enough advice to the girl, most of it contradictory. She seemed to be enjoying herself. He motioned to one of the Bokoblins watching from the wall.

 _See that dinner is waiting for her when she returns. When she finishes swimming she'll be hungry. Let us not risk her wrath._

The Bokoblin smiled. _Certainly, sir_ , she responded. _Those boys will be hungry too. The last thing we want is them tracking water into the kitchen and fighting each other over food._

Ganondorf fanned himself as he watched them. Before long the girl was floating like a jellyfish and diving like a seal.

His own first attempt at swimming had been disastrous. It was during the last days of his boyhood, his muscles already hardening and seeming to turn against him. He had refused to wade into the water with his sisters, instead insisting on rowing out over Lake Hylia. He would either sink or swim; there was no alternative. He jumped and sank like a rock.

His body refused to float, and he had not learned water magic. He had also neglected to learn how to hold his breath, and he would have drowned if one of his aunts hadn't fished him out with the blunt end of her spear.

So much in Hyrule had been new and strange to him then. He marveled at the grass of the prairies, clutching at it until his fingers were stained green. He had seen wheat and believed it to be gold. He had choked on fish bones and nearly blown himself up with gunpowder. The forests were like mirages in the desert, and his first touch of snow had been like something from a fairytale. What impressed him most, however, were the white marble walls of the castle. His own city was rich, certainly, but he could already sense that Hyrule possessed something beyond wealth.

Ganondorf was startled out of his reverie by a splash of warm seawater in his face. He blinked and saw Tetra grinning up at him. She had apparently figured out how to squirt water between her palms.

"You weren't paying attention," she smirked. "I could have drowned."

She was treading water like she had been doing it for years. Her slender shoulders hardly moved.

"You were thinking of drowning to spite me? Let me help you with that, then."

He held out his fan and summoned the wind. With a flick of his wrist, the breeze skimmed across the waves, churning the water and splashing Tetra in the face. She laughed, and the Bokoblins caught by the swell shook their fists at him.

Some of the other Bokoblins jumped in, creating even bigger waves. Tetra had gotten herself embroiled in some sort of contest, allowing herself to be dunked underwater as if she hadn't almost met her death by drowning not a day earlier.

Ganondorf wondered why no one had trained the girl to be comfortable in water, but he dismissed the thought. Whatever neglect she had suffered had nothing to do with him. If Tetra could swim now, that was one less thing he'd have to worry about.


	6. A Hero Drawn in Chalk

There were no books and hardly any paper in the village where Ganondorf learned the language of the Great Sea. He filled his days with small tasks around the island to repay the villagers for his lodging. The older men and women admired his industriousness, and soon they were introducing him to their daughters, simpleminded girls who blushed at his size and exotic golden eyes. The easygoing nature of the islanders infuriated him. Did they have no curiosity about the world beyond the shores of their small island? Did they not long for something more?

Finally a trader arrived, telling Ganondorf that an island to the northeast had a curious custom of boys dressing up as "the hero" on the day they came of age. If there was anything to learn of castles and princesses, perhaps it could be found there. Ganondorf was grateful for the excuse to leave the village, and he set out into the night as the trader was feasted and entertained. Even with the wind in his favor, the journey would take several weeks, and he did not wish to waste more time.

Ganondorf found that he did not hate the ocean. Riding the waves on his small boat was like riding a horse across the desert, navigating only by the stars spiraling above him. Although everything else in this timeline had changed, the constellations remained the same. In his country, the stars had been named after rare and elusive flowers – the _hyacinth_ , the spider lily, the desert rose. In Hyrule, the stars were known by the names of mythical creatures – the Moldorm, the Gohma, the Argorok. Some stars bore the same names everywhere, even in this degraded world – the sword, the archer, the boar.

Eventually he came to the island that the trader had referred to as "Outset," called such because it marked the southern boundary of one of the most densely inhabited stretches of the Great Sea. When he alighted on a small pier extending from a wooden lookout platform, his arrival was not accorded any particular attention. The town was used to travelers, then.

Ganondorf was approached by a group of chestnut-haired and round-eared children. He ignored their questions, instead asking them about the legend of their hero. They pointed to a solitary house high on the cliffs overlooking the sea and directed him to someone they called "Granny." After he made the climb to her house, she had taken one look at him and slammed the door in his face, but not before he managed to catch a glimpse of her pointed Hylian ears.

He now stood at one of the windows of the Tower of the Gods, fanning himself as he gazed south toward Outset Island. He had been so exhausted from his voyage and thrilled by the sight of the woman's ears that he had left her alone, but he wondered if he might have shaved years off his sojourn in this waterlogged world if he had forced his way inside her home and threatened her until she had provided the information he so keenly desired. In another life he might have tried to charm her, but the bloodshed he'd witnessed had blunted his tongue, and he was impatient to be off again.

Remembering the energy he had possessed when he first woke into this world, Ganondorf found it almost ironic how patience had been forced upon him by the steady roll of waves that marked his time on the Great Sea.

Yelling and laughter echoed from one of the lower floors. He had no doubt the girl was to blame.

Tetra was in the wide hall they used for archery practice, surrounded by young Bokoblins. An older Moblin stood at the doorway, supervising them. She was obviously a caretaker of some kind, but Ganondorf didn't know her name. He tried not to involve himself in the lives of the people who followed him. What should he call them? His army? His subjects? His tribe? It didn't matter. They were ultimately as ephemeral as everything else in this world.

Tetra sat in the middle of the circle, chattering away with the Bokoblins in a pidgin form of their language as they drew on the stone floor with large sticks of chalk, fighting each other over different colors. They were all too old for this sort of game, and yet they were so engrossed in their play that none of them noticed his approach.

The Bokoblins had sketched pug-nosed heroes in fanciful armor and improbable weapons, but Tetra's drawing caused his heart to jump to his throat. Although the figure was wearing the traditional green tunic, the hero holding the cursed sword of legend aloft was a girl with hair as red as the setting sun.

Tetra was a surprisingly skilled artist, swiftly rendering her hero lashing her sword out at the Bokoblin warriors in bold strokes. The floor had become a battlefield of chalk duels and sieges, with Tetra emerging as the clear victor.

Ganondorf moved so that his shadow fell on them. Everyone grew silent as they looked up at him.

"I see the hero is brave and mighty," he pronounced as he rolled up his sleeves, "but is she ready to challenge an even more fearsome foe?"

He dropped to his knees and snapped his fingers. The floor was instantly clean, and the sticks of chalk appeared in a row between him and Tetra. The Bokoblins scooted away to make room, and he could hear the clop of the Moblin's hooves as she walked over to join them.

Tetra gave a lopsided grin. "The hero can take anything you throw at her, old man."

"Very well." Ganondorf nodded solemnly. "Then let our battle begin!"

Tetra possessed natural talent, but he had studied both draftsmanship and embroidery at the knees of his mothers and aunts, and he had never allowed either of these skills to fall into disuse. He knew the patterns forming the skeletal face and terrible grasping hands of the Demon King just as well as anyone on the Great Sea, and he quickly recreated them in chalk on the floor in front of Tetra, sending out dark blue swirls from the claws of the beast to represent magic. Tetra countered him with the shield of her hero. Instead of the Hylian eagle, the shield bore the twin eyes and curving wings of the Gerudo dragonfly.

This cheered Ganondorf, inspiring him to greater flights of fancy. His Demon King sent skeletons and flaming keese after Tetra's hero, but she defeated them all. Finally the great monster came after the her himself, but the hero leapt onto his back. It looked for all the world as if the small figure was riding a giant boar.

Despite himself, Ganondorf laughed at the ridiculous notion. "Does your hero mean to tame the Demon King and gallop away?"

Tetra frowned. "What does 'gallop' mean?"

Ganondorf stared at her as understanding dawned on him. "'Gallop' is the gait of a horse at full speed, but you've never seen a horse, have you?"

He set down his purple chalk and picked up a stick of white. "Long ago," he said, sweeping away the Demon King and the hero with the edge of his hand and beginning to draw, "before this land was covered by the ocean, there were fields of grass stretching as far as the eye could see, and horses ran over the fields." A horse took shape, its mane streaming in the breeze. "People rode the horses, and together they could run as fast as the wind blows." He drew a small caricature of Tetra on the horse, and then drew several more horses in a line, showing how their legs moved and how their rider would bounce and lean in the saddle.

"So like this, then?" Tetra drew her own horse, and then another, and then the Bokoblins had taken his chalk from him to draw their own horses, some with horns and wings.

Tetra stood up and dusted her hands on her pants.

"Were there really such things in the world?" she asked, almost too quietly for him to hear.

"There were," he answered, "and there still may be, somewhere."

She looked at him accusingly. "Then why hasn't anyone found them?"

He shrugged. How could he explain the pettiness and vicious spite of the gods to this girl?

"Perhaps they don't want to be found," he said instead.

"Once you've been defeated and I'm free again, maybe I'll be the one to find them," she said, walking away and leaving him sitting on the floor, surrounded by ghostly white horses.


	7. No Escape

Once again he touched the Triforce, and the world shifted and changed around him. When he woke he found himself not in his palace but in a hovel with roughly hewn stone walls and only the barest rush mat covering the floor. Confused, he walked to the window, which was unadorned by glass or curtains. Instead of his city sprawling out before him, he saw only the gold sand of the desert stretching to the horizon.

No longer did he command the fabled wealth of the Gerudo. His people had been decimated by generations of war, and now they barely clung to life, eking out their existence with theft and highway robbery. Gone were his crown and fine robes; he wore only light armor weathered by constant use and a single topaz stone on his forehead. His lands had long ago been annexed by Hyrule, losing their names in the process. The areas he ruled were known only as "Gerudo Valley" and "Gerudo Fortress." The people of his tribe spoke Hylian more fluently than they did their own language.

Ignoring the protests of his sisters and his council, who had become mere shadows of the women he had once known, he rode to Hyrule Castle. If he could convince Zelda to help him rectify these wrongs against his people, they would have a worthy and noble cause to fight for together, and no one would dare to assassinate her.

He was shocked to find that the princess was a child. The woman who had danced with him so joyously, who had sung to him as he plaited her hair; the woman who had ridden with him under the moon, who had cried out softly as they made love during a summer rainstorm; the woman whose tongue was as sharp as her eyes, whose sword arm was as strong as his own – she had scarcely seen more than ten years of life in this world, and she hated him.

It seemed that everything in this timeline had been maliciously directed against his purposes. If the girl could live peacefully, then perhaps he might be content, but her father was murderous and insane, like his father before him. Rumors had spread that the princess's mother had died an unnatural death, and nobles were already vying for the right of succession to her throne. He knew he must find the Triforce, but it had been hidden from him, almost as if the gods no longer wanted it to be found.

Ganondorf heard the clattering of hooves on the stairs leading to his study, disrupting his thoughts. Soon enough a Moblin burst into the room.

 _Sir, I regret to inform you that..._

The Moblin cringed, and Ganondorf was immediately alarmed. He had lost the explosive temper of his younger years and even achieved something resembling a state of equanimity. If the Moblin was afraid of his reaction, something truly unfortunate must have happened, and he didn't need to guess who was involved. He crossed his arms and waited for her to continue, doing his best to conceal his impatience.

 _That... That we can't find Tetra_ , she stuttered.

Ganondorf sighed. Of course. This was bound to happen eventually.

 _This is a large tower_ , he said. _Can you assure me that every square meter of it has been examined?_

 _Sir, the Bokoblins have been searching for hours._

No wonder it had been so quiet. _Very well, you may leave_ , he told the Moblin. _Inform the others that I will handle this myself._

When she had disappeared down the stairs, Ganondorf allowed himself a small smile. He had been wondering when the girl would try to escape. If she hadn't made at least one attempt, he would have been disappointed.

Regardless, he had no desire to play hide-and-seek with her. The currents around the base of the tower were dangerous, and he'd prefer not to have to fish her out of the water again. She couldn't have descended to Hyrule Castle on her own, and nor, he assumed, would she have wanted to. If she wasn't inside the tower, then she was somewhere outside its walls. It was inconceivable that she would have been able to scale to the top of the structure, but that most certainly would not have prevented her from trying.

Ganondorf removed the cushion from his chair and placed it on the floor. He sat down on top of it, crossing his legs as he did so. He concentrated on visualizing himself, constructing every line and sinew of his body in his mind, humming as he slowly fed a thin thread of his magic into the imaginary form. When he opened his eyes, a dark phantom was floating before him. It was not a facsimile copy of himself, but a simplified and idealized version, what he might have looked like were his eyes brighter and his shoulders less stooped.

He sang a short spell, and the shadow divided itself into three parts. He closed his eyes again, now seeing from three viewpoints. After several moments of disorientation, he grew accustomed to the fragmentation and sent the phantoms through the open window so that they could begin spiraling up and down the length of the tower.

He found Tetra with no trouble at all. She had fashioned a grappling hook out of a small anchor, but the rope she used had frayed and broken. She clung to a small stone ledge, bracing herself against the wind like an expert climber, but she was clearly losing her strength.

When Ganondorf merged the three phantoms beside her and held out his arms, she jumped into them willingly. He flew her to his study and deposited her on the floor beside him as the shadows dissipated into curling tendrils of smoke.

It took him a moment to return to himself. When he opened his eyes, he found Tetra kicking at him, her arms apparently too exhausted to strike. He caught her waist and forced her to sit next to him. Her hair was wild, and tears ran down her face in thick streams.

"Why won't you let me leave?!" she shouted at him, choking on her sobs. "Why can't you just let me leave?"

Ganondorf merely looked at Tetra, waiting for her to calm herself.

"You filthy, stupid, gross old man. What do you want from me, anyway?"

The other young princess he had known had been so stoic, so elegantly collected and quietly perceptive. Although they were the same age, Tetra and the girl from his memories were universes away from one another.

"I didn't ask for this, you know," Tetra said, wiping her face with her hand and leaving smears of dirt across her cheeks. "Why does it have to be me?"

Ganondorf sighed. "I have asked myself the same question, child. Why does it have to be me?"

Tetra looked up at him, startled.

"You feel that you cannot leave this tower. I feel the same way; I am just as trapped as you are. The only difference between us is that my prison exists on a much larger scale than yours."

She glared at him. "It's not the same, and you know it."

He shook his head. "No, it is not. I have the power to propel myself along my course, but I seem to lack the wisdom to change it. Foresight has never been one of my talents."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Your attempt to escape was misguided, but valiant. If I hadn't found you, you might have made it."

Tetra met his eyes and gave a wary smile. For a moment she looked almost like the princess he remembered. "You're lying," she said.

"Indeed," he answered. "Neither of us has any choice but to stay here and wait for the hero. The boy is surely undergoing many trials. Don't waste his efforts."

"You know," Tetra said, massaging her arms, "I almost left Link on his island. I didn't want to take him to your fortress. If I hadn't, none of this would ever have happened."

"That's two of us who could use more foresight, then."

"Foresight is stupid." Tetra sniffed as she blinked away the last of her tears. "I'd rather be able to summon phantoms. How did you do that?"

Ganondorf rose to his feet and offered Tetra his hand, helping her stand.

"Have you been practicing your archery?"

"No, I told you," she pouted. "There's nothing to shoot."

He peered down at her. She glared back up at him defiantly. The tear-streaked grime on her face stood out against her skin like warpaint. It suited her. How ridiculous of Daphnes to put this girl in a dress and ask her to wait patiently for the boy to return to her. Tetra had been born for action.

"Would you care to use phantoms as targets?" he asked her.

She gave a wide grin in response, and her eyes glinted with devilish pleasure.


	8. Nowhere Else to Go

The town on Windfall was the largest he'd yet seen, but he could not charitably call it a city. The island was of middling size, so houses had been built on top of houses, and burrows had been dug into the slope of the hill rising from the sea. The market was bustling with activity, but the bulk of its commerce occurred at the port, which served as a gathering place for people hailing from all quadrants of the Great Sea.

Ganondorf moored his small boat in a hidden cove. He had gradually imbued the vessel with his magic, ensuring that it would not capsize, that its cargo hatch would never run out of space, and that it would never sink no matter how many blows it suffered from the creatures that lurked just under the waves. As an act of pure vanity, he also enchanted its bright red paint never to fade and its lion's head prow never to become chipped or weathered. He had come to feel a strange affection for the craft. Before he left he cast a spell of concealment, as he did not know when he would be able to return to it.

He needed to travel greater distances, and in order to do so he would need to find passage on a larger ship. He made inquiries at the dockside taverns, asking if any crews in the port would be willing to take him on as a sailor. The only responses he received were cold silences and icy stares.

Several days passed, and finally he caught wind of a merchant vessel about to embark on a voyage to the far west. He rushed to the anchored ship, where he found the captain overseeing the final preparations for departure. Ganondorf approached the man and made his request.

The man gaped at him with open disdain. "Surely you jest," he spat. "Gerudo scum!"

Ganondorf was so shocked to hear the word "Gerudo" mixed into the language of the Great Sea that he did not immediately understand he was being insulted. He waited for the captain to continue, but instead the man drew a pistol.

"The day I allow one of your filthy tribe onto my ship is the day I use nets for sails. Now be gone before I shoot you down like one of your whorish women."

Ganondorf's response was instinctual. He lashed out, backhanding the man and knocking him into the water.

The pier had gone silent. He turned to find a mob of people wearing clothing bearing the same emblem as the captain staring at him. So this was the crew, then. They surrounded him on all sides. Many of them had drawn their weapons. Murderous intent glinted in their eyes.

Before he could say a word, the men and women rushed to attack him. Ganondorf felt his heart sink as he drew his swords. Why were people always so eager to fling themselves at his blades? Cutting them down would be as easy as flicking flies from his sleeves. Did they so dearly want to die that they would blithely challenge a far superior opponent? Did they honestly think they could win against him?

Ganondorf breathed in as he stepped forward, thrusting his right sword into the belly of the first woman to reach him. He shoved her body into the man behind her, using the sword in his left hand to slice man's neck. He breathed out, stepping away from the jet of blood and swinging out his right blade, catching a second man in the chest. He breathed in, impaling a third man with his left blade. A second woman leapt at him, and he breathed out, running the tip of his right sword through her lungs before knocking her away. He heard someone approach him from behind, so he spun around as he breathed in, catching a fourth man's torso between the cross of his swords. A third woman threw a dagger at him. He dodged, breathed out, and used his magic to set her salt-encrusted boots on fire. She screamed as the pale blue flames rose up her legs.

The rest of the crew had the sense to hold back. Ganondorf stood and stared at them, surrounded by a ring of their fallen comrades. The burning woman continued to scream. Six people dead and one dying, the work of not even three minutes. He whisked the blood from his weapons.

Ganondorf turned his back to the crowd. "I'm commandeering this ship," he said, looking over his shoulder. He walked up the lowered gangplank and kicked it into the water after him. Embarking onto the Great Sea by himself in a ship of this size was not an ideal situation, but he would find a way to manage.

It had not been easy. In fact, even with his considerable magic, it had been almost impossible. Ganondorf grimaced, recalling the difficulties he had faced as Tetra rambled on about her own ship.

He had asked her to tell him about it merely to keep her from fidgeting, but she had warmed to her subject, and now she spoke volubly without any indication of ever running out of things to say. Not that he minded; the girl was a natural storyteller.

It had been several days since she had made her attempt to escape, and she had not bathed or otherwise groomed herself since then. An outsider might mistake this behavior for nihilism, but Ganondorf recognized it as the beginning of her process of acceptance. Her comfort in his presence meant very little in the long run, but he had to admit that her grudging companionship was preferable to her open resistance.

The wind outside the tower had whipped the loose bun of Tetra's hair into a rat's nest, and it had grown matted and oily in the time that had passed since then. She knelt in front of him as he teased out the tangles with his fingers. He had once worn his own hair long, and he was well acquainted with the process of taming an unruly mane.

Tetra had untucked her sleeveless white tunic from her pants, and its scooped neck drooped down her back. She shifted in response to a painful tug at her hair, and it dipped even farther, revealing the edge of a livid orchid scar fringed with puckered white tissue.

Ganondorf frowned as he set down the hairbrush. He could sense the rage blooming deep in his gut, and he did not want the girl to feel the tension in his hands.

"Tetra," he said. "Show me your back."

She must have known what he had seen, for she spun around violently.

"That's none of your business," she barked.

He clenched his fists. "Did the men of your crew do this to you?"

"No!" she shouted. "It's not like that. They saved me."

"And who, precisely, did they save you from?" he asked through gritted teeth. He was beginning to find it difficult to speak. Ganondorf had seen scars like this before. He knew she had been lashed as a very young child, and that the wounds had been left to fester. She was lucky she hadn't died.

"I..." Tetra dropped her eyes, her hair hanging lankly around her downturned face.

"My mother was a Gerudo," she finally said. "Not like you, but her skin was dark enough that she could never find a place to stay. We lived on the ocean until we were caught by people on an island way out east. They sank our boat and wouldn't let us leave. If Gonzo and Senza and the rest of the crew hadn't come along when they did, we probably would have died. My mother ended up taking command of the ship, but she eventually..."

Tetra waved her hand in front of her face as if fanning away a bad smell. "It doesn't matter. But you wear the same crest as my mother, so you understand. That's why I can't..."

She stumbled on her words, and then continued. "That's why I have to be a pirate, even if we attack ships and raid villages. The other pirates are the only ones who don't treat me like trash that someone forgot to throw away. The pirates... and Link."

Ganondorf forced himself to unclench his fists.

"We need to finish your hair," he said flatly. "The sun will set soon."

Tetra turned away, tugging up her tunic as she did so, and he resumed his work. This time he employed magic to speed the process. She had given him a great deal to think about, and he preferred to do so in his own company.

"So it's not like I could actually escape from this stupid tower," she muttered. "I don't have anywhere else to go."

"The Triforce of Wisdom is yours to command, Tetra," Ganondorf said softly. "You will always find a way forward."

"But the only place it's gotten me is here," she said, sighing like an old woman. "At least this tower is better than that terrible castle. When Link left me there, I thought I was going to die. I was so scared..."

"That castle should not exist. That's why you're going to help me destroy it."

"You could have given me a choice, you know," she said, turning her head to glare at him from the corner of her eye. "We could have talked like normal people. You didn't have to go around kidnapping girls."

Ganondorf reflected on the desperation he had felt, his anguish over the sterile emptiness of the Great Sea. Everything he had ever loved had been taken from him, and even the might of his fury was powerless against the slow and inexorable march of wasted time. He had moved rashly and without due consideration, but what other choice had been left to him?

He didn't respond as he combed the last knot out of Tetra's hair. She was right, of course.

The princess was always right, in the end.


	9. As Far as Your Heart Will Carry You

No matter where he sailed on the Great Sea, Ganondorf could not ascertain the location of Hyrule Castle. The rumors that reached his ears on the islands he visited led him to the peak of Death Mountain, although it was greatly changed. The Gorons who once tunneled through the rock had been replaced by the feathered Rito, and he marveled that the gods could be so strange and cruel.

There were few landmarks on the vast ocean, so he could only travel north with the hope that he might recognize something in the mountain chain that used to extend above Hyrule.

After a month he struck land. The shoreline seemed to run along a large expanse of earth that might actually be a continent. The pleasure of this realization was diminished by the sting of the bitterly cold climate.

Ganondorf wrapped himself in layers of clothing before setting off into the interior. The sky remained stubbornly gray, and the frost crackling under his feet refused to thaw. In order to draw water, he was forced to cut through thick sheets of ice. There were trees here, tall and spindly evergreens, but there was no dead wood on the ground suitable for burning. It was almost as if someone had gathered it before he arrived. This was no mere speculation, for he could sense eyes watching him as he walked.

When the first Bokoblin revealed itself on the afternoon of the third day, Ganondorf was relieved. He had been unable to find an adequate supply of food, and he had been on the verge of turning back.

He hailed the Bokoblin in the language of the Great Sea. When that failed, he attempted Hylian, which provoked a similar lack of response. As soon as he spoke in the Gerudo language, she attacked him, brandishing a wooden club. He kicked the Bokoblin's legs and took her weapon, which he used to smack her head as she tripped. As soon as she was down, dozens more appeared.

Ganondorf allowed himself to be led to their settlement, which had been built into a series of caves snaking into the sheer rock face of a mountain cliff. After the party wound its way through twisting tunnels, he was finally brought before a throne constructed of iron and wood and bone, on top of which sat the largest Moblin he had ever seen. This Moblin king was surrounded by its kin, each more ferociously armed than the next.

The Bokoblins and Moblins spoke in a corrupted form of his native tongue, yet he managed to communicate with them. The Hylians of old were cursed, they told him, and the Gerudo even more so. For bringing the displeasure of the gods into their domain, he would be ritually slain by no less a personage than the king himself.

Ganondorf felt his blood thrum in his veins. It had been some time since he'd been confronted with the possibility of a fight that would challenge him.

He wasted no time in drawing his twin swords, lunging at the king in a flash. The Moblin met the blows with his spear, and the two of them became embroiled in a fierce battle that would not end until one of them lay dead.

Ganondorf never doubted the outcome. There had only ever been one opponent he could not defeat, and she was not here.

When the Moblin fell, the gathered crowd was silent for a breathless moment before erupting into cheers. It seemed the king had been a tyrant, and his passing was not mourned. After a night of wild celebration, Ganondorf was awarded the honor of becoming the new leader of the tribes. He did not hesitate to take it. With the Bokoblins and Moblins under his command, he would be able to cover much more of the Great Sea in his search for Hyrule.

In the months that followed, he mobilized the tribes away from the frozen forest and tundra and out onto the sea. He was surprised to find that they possessed advanced seafaring cultures of their own and had only hidden in the northern mountains because they had been driven away by the southerners, who refused to trade with them or even to learn their language.

Bokoblins and Moblins were said to be demons, and he began to hear whispers that a new Demon King had appeared. This could be none other than himself, but Ganondorf was so used to such slurs that he was almost amused. Late at night he used gold thread to embroider a boar's skull pattern onto the back of a jet black coat that reminded him of the robes he had once worn as the ruler of the desert. If casting a net of fear over the Great Sea would help him achieve his goals, then he would gladly become a monster.

And so action led to action, with small outposts and fortresses going up around the islands and ruins scattered across the ocean. As his sphere of influence expanded, Ganondorf began letting it be known that he was seeking girls with pointed ears. Years passed, and at long last the princess revealed herself. Finally he had arrived at the Tower of the Gods, and soon everything would converge once again into a singular moment of truth.

"I'm bored," Tetra sighed.

"Boredom is a privilege," Ganondorf responded.

"That's stupid."

"You're young."

"Maybe you're just old."

Ganondorf gave a noncommittal grunt. He sat on the ledge of one of the tower windows. Tetra stood beside him, her elbows propped on the stone next to his boots. She gazed desultorily out over the Great Sea.

"Would you rather be a pirate than live a life of leisure?" he asked, fanning himself.

"Just because you don't like adventures doesn't mean other people can't enjoy them."

"Is that what you want, Tetra? Endless adventure? To forever wander the waves, never finding your way home? Never finding anyone to come home to?"

She frowned and flicked a bit of dust out of the window. "Not when you put it like that, no. It would probably be nice to settle down. Eventually, I mean. I just..."

"You just want to be part of something larger than yourself," he suggested.

Tetra sighed again. "That's it, but not..." She made a brief gesture indicating the interior of the room. "Not like this. There's too much waiting around. I'd rather see things no one has ever seen and go places no one has ever gone. I know you think being a pirate is just fighting and stealing, but what else am I supposed to do? Do you want me to live my whole life on some tiny island?"

Ganondorf remembered the slack-mouthed stares of the young women of the village where he had first learned the language of this world. He could not imagine Tetra thriving in such an environment. No matter what world she was born into, the princess was fated to operate on a grand scale.

He shook his head. "Imagine, if you will," he began, for a moment allowing himself to indulge a fantasy of a life in which he did not quest after the Triforce. "Imagine an enormous body of land, so large that you could never hope to sail around it."

Tetra barked cynical laughter. "Such a thing doesn't exist."

Ganondorf smiled. "Oh, but it does."

He folded his fan closed and bent forward to hand it to her. She took it from him and spread it open.

"Have you ever seen a design like this?" he asked, leaning back.

Tetra turned the fan back and forth. "It's a fish... I think."

Ganondorf nodded. "It is indeed a fish. If you know what a fish looks like, then you're aware that they are creatures that live in water. Of course, none live in the Great Sea, but imagine a land so large that it contains its own small oceans. You can swim in the water, and drink it. Imagine water teeming with fish."

"I'd have to see it to believe it."

"Far to the south is a continent on which such things exist. The journey is long, and not without danger, but there are those who have made it. Where do you think I got this fan?"

Tetra's eyes widened. "Have you been there?"

Ganondorf pressed the back of his head against the cool stone and closed his eyes. "No, child, I have not. But I imagine an intrepid adventurer in command of a large and stalwart ship might be able to make the voyage successfully."

"Maybe," Tetra said, handing the fan back to him, "when this is all over..."

He didn't respond. Perhaps he could go one way, and she could go another. She would take the hero with her, and he could take the king with him. Daphnes was a player he had never expected to enter this game, and he found the man's bitter pursuit of him perplexing. Were they not working toward the same goal? They had hated each other once, but time had blunted the edge of his own fury. Surely the passing years had mellowed Daphnes as well. Why not let the children follow their own path and settle things between themselves?

But such thoughts were meaningless. If he failed to recover the Triforce and resurrect Hyrule, then all these many years – and all these many worlds – would have been wasted for no purpose. Without Zelda, his life was empty. The faint hope that she would one day live again was all that remained to him.

No matter how much he wished it to be so, Tetra was not Zelda. She was her own person, brilliant and unique.

"When this is all over," he said, allowing his mind to linger in the fantasy just a bit longer, "you will set out into the Great Sea, the hero and your crew at your side. You will travel far and see much, and your exploits will become legends. One day you will become a magnificent queen, using your wisdom to create a new kingdom far away from this cursed sea. It will be a shining beacon, never knowing ignorance or evil."

"Do you really think I can do all that?"

"The princesses who came before you were the strongest and smartest and bravest women I've ever known. Once this is all over, you can go anywhere your heart leads you."

Tetra crossed her arms and looked out over the ocean.


	10. Beneath These Waves

The hero was close. Ganondorf could feel it on the wind.

"Tetra," he said, snapping his fan shut. "It's time."

"Time for what?" she asked, stretching and yawning like a cat.

"We need to go to the castle."

"Do we have to?"

"Yes." He wouldn't allow himself to consider the alternatives. He had waited too long.

He stood up and walked to the center of the room. Gathering his will, he stomped his foot onto the stone floor. Glowing lines spread from his bootheel like ripples rising from a rock dropped into a still oasis.

Tetra regarded him curiously. "Come here," he ordered.

"Are we leaving now?" She sauntered over with feigned nonchalance, but he could tell from the tightness at the corners of her mouth that she was afraid. He didn't blame her.

Ganondorf held out his hand. "Nothing down there can hurt you as long as you're with me."

Tetra hesitated. "But the king..."

"The king is a coward. He dares not approach me without the hero."

Tetra clicked her tongue. "Okay, fine. I guess that's all right then."

She took his hand.

* * *

Ganondorf touched the Triforce and woke to find Hyrule overgrown, a dense jungle rising from the plains. When he recovered from his shock, he organized an expedition into the lost kingdom. The thick growth was filled with dangerous creatures, but his Goron and Deku companions were unfazed by the insects and the humidity. The Gerudo tribeswomen who accompanied him were proud warriors and even prouder scientists, and they were just as eager to locate the legendary castle as he was.

What they found were not ruins but an intensely xenophobic society that had achieved a sense of harmony with its chaotic surroundings by means of a strictly enforced isolation from the outside world. Their princess, a swift and mighty hunter who held court within marble walls choked with vines, was said to receive visions from the gods. She had known he was coming, and she resisted his progress into her city, but he would not be turned away.

Although she initially treated him as an unwelcome invader, he spoke to her of the unbroken skies beyond the forest, softly lulling her into the state of curiosity he knew to be her weakness. She agreed to open Hyrule to the tribes at its borders, and for a brief time her kingdom enjoyed a period of prosperity. The Hylians had been sheltered for too long, however, and one by one they fell prey to the diseases the outsiders unwittingly brought with them. When Zelda died in his arms, she did not curse him, and somehow her sad smile was worse than any condemnation.

* * *

The air in the underwater castle smelled of dust and decay. Tetra was clearly uncomfortable, and once again Ganondorf wondered what Daphnes had been thinking when he ordered her to remain here on her own. Even as fearless as she was, this was no place for a child. The light streaming through the tall stained glass windows was eerie and unsettling, and the bodies of the creatures the hero had slain still lay where they had fallen.

Ganondorf could sense the boy and the king getting closer. If he could manage to lure them into his stronghold, he would be able to take the Triforce without further bloodshed, but he was running out of time.

Tetra stumbled behind him, and without thinking he stretched out an arm to catch her. Looking back, he saw that her face was drawn and pale.

"Do you need to rest?" he asked, unable to keep his impatience from leaching into his voice.

She shook her head. "No, just, can we slow down a little?"

"Very well," he acquiesced. The oak doors of the castle rose in front of them. He broke the magic sealing them shut as easily as snapping a desiccated twig. He wondered why, in this cold and lonely otherworld, the grand marble tomb of the Hylian monarchy still maintained its locks and barriers.

Ganondorf walked across the threshold of the doorway, and Tetra followed. She had not been able to leave the castle, so this was the first time she had seen what lay beyond its walls. He watched her gape in terrified awe as she took in the field of ghostly grass waving in the stale wind. Far above their heads floated the bottom of the Great Sea, its water blue and lifeless.

He had come here almost every night, and the landscape never failed to fill him with loathing.

"This is Hyrule?" Tetra asked.

"This was never Hyrule," he answered. "This is a pale imitation and a hideous mockery."

"Once we pass through the gates of the outer wall, space will become distorted," he told her. "We must travel quickly. Let me know if you start to feel faint."

Tetra rubbed her arms, which had broken into goosebumps. "And what're you gonna do if I do feel sick? It's not like that'll stop you."

"No," he agreed. "It won't. If you can no longer walk, I will carry you."

"What's the big hurry?"

"The hero is on his way." He grimaced. "Can't you feel him getting closer?"

"Yes," Tetra answered miserably.

* * *

Again he touched the Triforce, and when he opened his eyes the wooden floor was vibrating underneath his feet. From his window he saw only clouds. Ganondorf rushed outside to find himself on the deck of a massive ship sailing across the sky. He gaped at the stunning vista around him in wonder while Gerudo tribeswomen wearing what appeared to be military uniforms went about their business with complete nonchalance.

The marvels of this timeline were beyond his wildest dreams. Technology had progressed by leaps and bounds. Even as airships trawled the skies, steam engines sped along iron rails on the surface of the earth. Buildings rose to incredible heights, and the population had exploded. The kingdom of Hyrule was now an empire, and the world seemed wider than he could ever have imagined. Ganondorf had his pilot direct a course for Hyrule Castle. He yearned so desperately to meet the princess that he could barely sleep; surely she must be a marvel.

When they docked high on one of the soaring towers of the castle complex, he was received with utmost dignity and respect, but the princess was nowhere to be seen, and no one spoke of her. To the befuddlement and consternation of his tribeswomen, he decided to remain in Hyrule on an extended diplomatic mission. He spent his days in the library and his evenings at court, but at night he prowled the enormous castle and descended into the teeming city below, searching everywhere for the woman that not even the resonance of his Triforce could locate.

What he learned chilled him to his core. Although the Hylians had always distrusted magic, it was absolutely forbidden in this timeline, and anyone found to have any trace of magical ability within the borders of the empire was swiftly executed, their very existence erased. He feared for Zelda, whose identity as a bearer of the Triforce could not have remained hidden.

Since he could not find her, he instead managed to locate the hero, who had always shared a psychic bond with the princess. In this world, of all the many worlds he had seen, the hero was not a child or a teenager but a man his own age. United by a common grievance against the empire, they became comrades in arms. Perhaps they may have even become friends.

After much hardship, they were able to infiltrate the labyrinthine cellars underneath the castle, where at long last they found Zelda. Wires and tubes snaked from her body, which was kept artificially alive and used as a magical battery. No wonder he had not been able to sense her – if she had once had a mind, it was long gone.

Ganondorf destroyed the machinery imprisoning her and wrenched her freezing body away from its prison. After kissing her smooth and flawless forehead, he thrust his sword through her heart, sending a jolt of energy through the blade to ensure a clean death. He then turned to the hero, who had watched this scene unfold with his mouth agape.

He took advantage of the hero's abject horror to slay him on the spot.

* * *

By the time Ganondorf and Tetra reached the dark tower that spiraled up into the sea, the girl was obviously not well. Her eyes had lost their focus, and her skin had taken on a deathly pallor.

He pressed his hands and his magic against the tower's black granite doors, and they creaked open.

"I don't like this place," Tetra announced.

"Nor do I."

"What is it?"

"Many years ago it was called 'Ganon's Tower,' after a mythical wizard who once threatened the kingdom. It was always a cursed place, but it only looked like this in the imagination of the Hylians, who did not realize that it stood on the foundations of a temple once erected to honor their patron goddess."

"Why did we come here?" Tetra asked, hesitant to draw any closer.

"It was my base of operations when I waged a war against Hyrule."

Tetra looked up at him. There was no anger or accusation on her face, merely exhausted resignation. "Why did you attack Hyrule?"

"I didn't," Ganondorf said as he strode through the open doors. "Hyrule attacked me."

"You're... not lying," Tetra said, unhappily following along behind him.

As soon as the sole of her boot touched the interior flagstones, she suddenly collapsed.

Ganondorf managed to catch her as she fell, but he could not rouse her. Unconsciousness had fallen over her like a shroud. Her breathing was shallow, and her heartbeat was weak.

"No," he whispered, before screaming in wordless rage. His voice echoed hollowly through the empty tower.

* * *

It was true that he had not attacked the kingdom of Hyrule, but he was not blameless.

After countless timelines, Ganondorf finally found himself in a world strikingly similar to the one he had left behind when he first touched the Triforce. In the most stunning miracle of miracles, Zelda recognized him. They had apparently been childhood friends, and she clearly had feelings for him. He felt himself grow young again as her bright laughter washed away the despair of his endless quest to find her.

When he courted her, he was careful, ever so careful, not trusting himself not to harm her. Zelda was no delicate flower wilting under the heat of his affection, however, and she seemed to find delight in his roughness. After years of not being able to hold her, he found himself falling in love with her as if for the first time. She responded in kind, and the intensity of the passion that rose between them dazzled him.

Late in the night after their wedding, as they lay tangled in the sheets of their bed in the princess's castle, Ganondorf told her about the Triforce and the many worlds he had created and discarded, the story spilling out of him like blood from a wound. Zelda listened intently, and then she made a confession of her own. She had loved him, she said, but she had needed a marriage to bolster her status within Hyrule. There was much she hadn't revealed to him, the sum total of which was that her father's kingdom was horrendously unstable. If she had been repeatedly assassinated in other worlds, she mused, then it was highly likely that she was not safe in this one. He agreed.

"Let me take you into the desert," he said. "No one will find us. Your father is a capable ruler, and your kingdom will rise or fall without us. We can return when we know we'll be safe."

And so he and Zelda had fled, telling no one of their plans. In retaliation, Daphnes had declared war on the Gerudo, razing their capital city to the ground. Zelda returned to him, pleading that he see reason, but when Ganondorf rode to join her he was attacked by Hylian soldiers. He became a one-man trail of destruction as he marshaled his forces and fought his way to Hyrule Castle.

When he arrived, Daphnes was waiting for him.

* * *

Ganondorf knelt beside the bed in his former room at the base of the tower. Tetra lay on top of the quilt. Her clothing had once again been magically replaced by the traditional dress of Hylian royalty. A golden crown was twined through her hair, its center gem the shimmering ruby he had given Zelda to commemorate their engagement.

He knew in his heart that this girl could not possibly be his Zelda, but his memory was damnably vague. Who had touched the Triforce? Had it truly been his hand that had reshaped this world?

Had he made a terrible mistake by bringing Tetra to this place?

He had lit the torches on the standing braziers around the bed, hoping to cast light and warmth into this windowless room, but the air remained as cold and unforgiving as the history that suffused it.

Tetra was barely breathing.

Ganondorf pressed his face against the quilt and wept.


	11. Starting Over

Ganondorf could sense the heat of the sun on his face. He opened his eyes to find himself alone on the beach. His body felt heavy. He raised his arm and saw that it was encased in dark armor.

He leapt to his feet and tore his crown from his head before flinging it away from him. It shone brilliantly in the sun as it traced an arc into the sea. He screamed at the waves, raging as he ripped his cape from his shoulders and clawed at the belts and hinges of his armor. His fury had not spent itself when he finally stood in nothing more than his tunic, so he kicked the metal across the sand with his bare feet, spewing obscenities all the while.

Long after his voice had gone hoarse and his feet had grown sore, he finally ceased his rampage and sat on the shore. Had he touched the Triforce? He couldn't remember.

He put his hand to his forehead, intending to wipe away the sweat running into his eyes, but instead he touched the topaz ornament he had always worn as the centerpiece of his crown. He spoke the words that released the spell binding it to his skin, and it fell into his hand.

Ganondorf turned the gem in his fingers as he considered his next course of action. He would need to find the girl, but the Great Sea was vast and dotted with countless islands. Would her Triforce call out to him? He looked at the back of his hand and summoned his power. The familiar triangles glowed against his skin, but he felt nothing. Had Tetra been born? Might he be able to save her mother? Would she recognize him for who he was?

He stood, stretched back his arm, and pitched the topaz stone into the waves. It sailed through the air. He was once again a young man in a young man's body. His hands were stronger, his eyes clearer. As he watched the amber glint of the gem disappear, a shape on the horizon caught his attention. It seemed to be a boat. With nothing better to do, he sat back down and waited.

It turned out to be a trim indigo skiff propelled by a sail so white it looked silver. As the craft drew closer, he could see that the hair of the woman sailing it was golden. She was heading directly for his island. He prepared himself to receive her.

When the woman stepped from her boat into the surf, a gust of wind blew her hair away from her face. She was wearing nothing more than a bikini shell and a cerulean sarong. Pink-tinged plumeria flowers were twined through her long sidelocks. Her skin was deeply tanned, and her eyes were as perfectly blue as the desert sky. She was smiling at him.

"Tetra?"

She laughed as she walked to him across the sand. She stood on her tiptoes and reached up to link her arms around his neck.

"You foolish man. Don't you recognize your own wife?"

"Zelda..."

He lifted her, and she kissed him, gently at first, and then hungrily. Her lips were as sweet as the smell of the flowers in her hair.

She tugged at his arms, signaling for him to lower her. When her feet were back on the sand she pulled him down onto the beach with her. He sat cross-legged, and she perched in his lap. He stared at her in wonder as she ran her hands over the contours of his face.

"You remember me, then," he managed to say.

She pressed her forehead against his, touching their noses together before kissing him.

"Yes, I remember you," she said in the spaces between breaths. "I remember everything, even despite your best efforts to steal my memories from me. It took me forever to find you. Navigating the currents of time is difficult. You're lucky I'm the reincarnation of a goddess."

Her breathing had grown heavy, and her heart beat against his chest. All that separated them was the thin fabric she wore over her breasts. He could feel himself growing hard.

She pressed herself against him, and he couldn't stop himself from groaning with pleasure. He wanted her so badly it hurt. He would die if he didn't have her.

She touched her lips to his and rocked her hips, rubbing herself along his length. He could feel her delicious wetness. The sensation was overwhelming, and all he could do was call out her name as he came, suddenly and violently.

When he returned to himself he saw the flush of her cheeks, pink under her tan.

"I searched for you for ages, ages within ages. Zelda, how did you find me?"

"How proud you have always been, Ganondorf." She breathed his name, and it was as though a gentle rain had broken through dark clouds. "You have always assumed that the only way forward was the path you cleared by force. I rode the waves of time outside of the worlds you created, and slowly I remembered who you were and what you meant to me."

"And what is it I meant to you?" he asked, begging, pleading, longing for her from the bottom of his ancient soul.

"You were my heart, my love, always."

Zelda kissed him, and his mind and body flooded with sweetness.

"I missed you," she said simply, trailing her fingers along his jaw. Within seconds he was hard again. He lifted her from his lap and discarded his soiled shorts before pulling his tunic over his head. He unknotted her sarong, spreading it over the sand and laying her down on top of it. He licked the salt from her stomach as he untied the strings holding together the cloth covering her smooth and perfect skin.

He could smell her, and he wanted nothing more than to taste her. He looked at her, and she met his gaze with need in her eyes.

He caressed her folds with his tongue, the motions coming back to him as if he had never ceased to touch her. She was gorgeous, and he couldn't get enough of her. He slid one finger into her, and then two, and began to move them as he licked her. She grabbed his hair and pressed him down into her, surging with desire. Her taste was intoxicating, and the feel of her satin thighs against his cheeks was sending him dangerously close to the edge. He moved his fingers faster as he enveloped her swollen bud in his lips, and then she came, trembling below his mouth, radiant in her passion.

He could contain himself no longer. He reached down and released the pressure inside of him with a few swift movements of his wrist. He lost himself in his own pleasure as he plunged his tongue inside of her, tasting the lingering moments of her climax.

She drew his face to hers and kissed him, not yet sated. Her hands were at his waist, teasing him. He could feel the callouses on her fingers, which only heightened his arousal.

"Zelda... Please... I want..."

His words fell from his mouth like stones. He could not think; he could only feel.

"Be quiet and love me," she said, guiding him into her.

"Not yet," he whispered, kissing her neck before lowering his head and circling his lips around her rosy nipple. It stiffened against his tongue. She arched her back and moaned. He remembered how sensitive she was. He sucked at her and brushed against her with his teeth as he moved his hand between her legs. She was wet and ready for him, but that wasn't enough. He found the pearl of her clit and pressed the pads of his fingers against it, making her moan again.

He yearned for her, throbbing and desperate. How many nights had he lain awake, trying to remember himself by thinking of her? At times he had struggled to recall her face, piecing together chains of memories - the lilt of her eyes, the scent of her hair, the smooth curve of her shoulders. Now that she was here, so deliciously close to him, she was even more beautiful than she had been in his mind. Her bare skin under his hands was richer and finer than anything should have been in this fallen world, and if he touched her forever it would still not be enough.

He burned with desire, but what a waste it would be to stop kissing her. Even as he lay over her, his shaft aching against her leg, he could not bear to give up the touch of her cool fingers on his face as she stroked his cheek. Her tongue was light and lovely in his mouth, reminding him of the land before it sank under the waves, when the gentle wind playfully parted the tall grass of the green fields. To him, Zelda was a softer world and a brighter age, but she was also gloriously herself, a woman higher and better than the throne of any kingdom. Gods, how he wanted her.

She shifted herself under him, and suddenly her wetness was right against him. She rubbed herself over him, and her name rose to his lips. It had been so long.

"I want you, Zelda," he growled.

She pressed her face into his chest. "Then take me," she whispered, and his thoughts dissolved into desire.

He pressed the head of his cock into her cleft, and slowly, ever so slowly, he entered her. She was unbearably tight around him, and it took all of his control not to ravage her then, not to fuck her as his body demanded. Her slender arms grasped his back and pulled him down to her, and he was briefly calmed, although he still burned for her. She spread her legs to allow him even deeper, and when she began to move her hips he lost himself in her rhythm. Every thrust into her brought almost unbearable waves of pleasure.

Her small cries were like silk on his ears, and each nail digging into his back was a stab of delirious sensation. He knew she was close from the way she forced him into her, and by the gods he was close too, so hard and ready that he could hardly stand it.

She grabbed his hand from her shoulder and drew it between them, stroking his fingers against her. His mind was gone, but his body knew how to please her. She gasped his name as she came, shuddering around him and grasping him where he was most sensitive. His pleasure broke over him in an explosion of light, and he lost himself inside of her.

As their breath and heartbeats slowed they held each other, speaking of things that had gone unsaid for years, and for lifetimes.

Much later, they sat on the beach, secure in each other's arms, watching the sun set over the horizon.

The sun set for hours.

"This can't be real," Ganondorf finally said.

"So you figured it out."

"Where are we?"

"In the interstices between time."

"I don't understand."

"This is the Sacred Realm," Zelda explained. "This is the world connected to the Triforce."

"Did I touch the Triforce?"

"No – or rather, you won't have touched it. Time doesn't mean much here."

He had so much he wanted to ask her, and so much he needed to know, but the only thing that came to his lips was, "Can we stay here?"

Zelda didn't answer.

"You care for Tetra," she said instead. It wasn't a question.

"I... Of course I care for her."

"She's our daughter, you know. Our daughter from many mothers. This world, of all the worlds I've visited, isn't a world you've created. What you wished for was a way for me to live free of my fate. And that's what you got, but..."

Zelda smiled sadly. "You were given a world where you wouldn't be able to touch the Triforce," she continued. "My father touched it instead. I was free, but you were sealed away and sent into the future. That should have been the end of it, but you've become the center of causality in this timeline. That's why your Hyrule remains underwater. If you truly want to put all this to rest, you must give up the Triforce."

Ganondorf felt his heart turn to lead in his chest.

"But the Great Sea..."

Zelda's face lit up with the impish grin that had first made him fall in love with her. "Would you like to know what Tetra dreams of?"

She placed her hands over his eyes, shutting out everything except for the sound of waves.

"Oceans," she said. "The girl dreams of oceans."


	12. The Final Battle

When Tetra woke up, water was falling from the sky. Ganondorf held one of the sleeves of his robe over her, shielding her from the rain.

"So you're awake." He smiled down at her, and she smiled back up at him.

She was so relieved. In her dream...

Tetra sat up and felt a skirt shift around her legs. She gasped in horror. She was wearing that wretched princess dress again. Her dream had been real.

Ganondorf was still holding his robe over her like a wing, but she didn't want to look at him.

"Where are we?"

"We're at the top of the tower."

"On the Great Sea?"

"No. Under it."

"Why is it raining?"

"This realm is collapsing."

Tetra twisted her hands in their white silk gloves. The princess in her dream had already explained this to her, but she didn't want to believe it.

"What does that mean? What will happen to us if the ocean falls?"

"Nothing will happen to you as long as I'm here. The hero is coming to rescue you."

Ganondorf refused to call Link by his name, always referring to him as "the hero." Tetra was certain he did this to annoy her. How could he be so stubborn? Why did he insist on being so frustrating, especially at a time like this?

"Great. You got your hero. Now you can have your precious Triforce."

She curled her legs up to her chin. The falling water pattered on Ganondorf's sleeve above her.

"Tetra."

She dug her face into her knees.

"Tetra. Look at me."

She glanced up at him. Water ran down his face. His eyes were kind.

"Do you want this to be your Hyrule? This castle under the sea?"

"No," she muttered, shaking her head.

"But I'm not a princess," she continued. "I saw Princess Zelda in my dream. She's the real princess, not me."

"You are Princess Zelda now. Hyrule will follow you wherever you go."

"Can you come with me? And Link? Link isn't so bad, really he isn't."

He didn't answer, so she pressed on.

"My ship is big enough for both of you, and I'm sure no one will have any hard feelings. We can bring the Bokoblins. You can get your own boat, if you want..."

"I wish I could, child, but I am bound to this place. As long as I bear the Triforce of Power, I am cursed always to return to it."

"Then... How do you get rid of the Triforce of Power?"

He lowered his arm and got to his feet. One drop of water fell on her face, and then another. She stood. When she looked at him again, he was holding her bow. Zelda had told her about this as well.

"It has to be done by the princess's hand."

"No!" She clenched her fists and glared at him.

"Am I lying?"

Of course he wasn't. The Triforce inside her told her that what he said was true.

"Fine."

She yanked the bow away from him, feeling the fabric at her shoulders strain against the movement. She'd be lucky to shoot anything in these ridiculous clothes.

"Did Zelda..." He paused, seemingly at a loss for words. "Did the princess in your dream show you how to summon the light arrows?"

Suddenly Tetra was furious. Why had the Triforce chosen her? Why did it have to be her and not any other girl with pointed ears?

"My dreams are none of your business! I hope you drown in this shitty tower with your stupid Triforce."

Ganondorf grinned at her. "That's the spirit, Tetra! Fuck the Triforce!"

She slammed the end of her bow against the rain-slick stones. "Fuck the Triforce!"

The two of them screamed laughter at the ocean above.

"I hear they like hot-blooded girls in the land to the south. You'll do all right."

Tetra's anger fell away from her. This was real. Link would be here soon, she could feel it.

"You know," she said, beginning to turn away from him, "it's probably going to be very uncomfortable. When we sail south. If it's all land, and no water. There won't be any wind, no ocean breeze."

Ganondorf regarded her, light dawning in his eyes. He smirked, pulled his fan from his sleeve, and handed it to her.

"Then you'll need this more than I will."

The sound of bootheels approached as Tetra tucked the fan into her belt. She looked toward the stairs, and looked back at Ganondorf. He now held a sword in each hand. Their blades gleamed in the eerie undersea light.

"Make me proud," he said, his eyes shining.

"Tetra!" Link had finally arrived. He looked different, somehow. More like a hero.

"Tetra! Are you okay?" he called out. He ran to her, and she met him halfway, hugging him as hard as she could.

"You're late," she said into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I was afraid. I was so afraid, Tetra. But I couldn't leave you here. I had to come back, no matter what."

Tetra felt the Triforce of Wisdom resonate in her chest. It was time.

"That's okay," she said, drawing away from him. "I understand. Let's do this."

"Are you sure you can fight?"

"Yes. I finally know who I am."

Link drew his sword, and she raised her bow. Together they faced Ganondorf.


End file.
